


Pitching Pearls

by Dream_Trance



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: A drabble/one-shot collection, Alternate Universe, Canon Divergence, Cuddling, M/M, Tumblr is a Mess and FF sucks, Void Danny, reposting most of these from tumblr
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-03
Updated: 2019-04-13
Packaged: 2019-11-08 21:02:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,686
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17988464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dream_Trance/pseuds/Dream_Trance
Summary: Posting some of my favorite writings for this pairing on here so tumblr doesn't devour them and I can find them more easily. They range from cuddling at night to a reverse au where the portal accident drops mythical creature Danny Fenton at Phantom's feet.





	1. Tail Cuddles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anon: I love your writing! I'm glad to see your back. Uhhh, prompts. Hmm. Cuddle session featuring Phantom's clingy tail?

Phantom’s tail was…weird. Danny had thought so before, but staring at where it had wrapped around his wrist, half-asleep himself and not entirely sure he wasn’t dreaming, the thought that Phantom’s tail was just _really fucking weird_ occurred to him all over again. 

Every inch was transparent, but it started out as a smoky black at the base. By the end it had lost all color and only existed on the visual plane as a distortion in the air, even the glow fading out of sight.That was the part currently wrapped around Danny’s wrist. He couldn’t see it very well with only Phantom’s glow to illuminate his room, but he could feel that it had wrapped itself twice around his wrist and then tucked the tip in between the loop and his pulse. Almost like a knot.  Because along with its appearance, Phantom’s tail had a dexterity completely alien to most animals.

It was a really, really weird tail. 

The arm Danny had thrown over his head and then brought back down to hook over his forehead some time during the night was the one currently seized by Phantom’s tail. The other one was completely free, and Danny brought it  towards his head, his fingers stretching out to skim the nearly invisible appendage. 

The tail twitched.

“Go back to sleep.”

Danny tilted his chin up and squinted above him, meeting the glowing green eyes of his ghost. Phantom sat on the arched bar of Danny’s headboard, and although he had dimmed his glow, he was the sole source of light in the dark room. His lips and eyebrows were pulled into a guilty expression.

“What’re you doin’?” Danny asked, voice thick from sleep.

“Uh…” Phantom hesitated and then lifted the magazine he held in his hands, showing Danny the cover of the Spaceport Magazine he had gotten in the mail two days ago. “Just catching up on NASA.”

Danny blinked at him and hummed. He was almost tired enough to accept that. Almost. He frowned and flexed his wrist, feeling the tight squeeze of Phantom’s tail before the ghost adjusted his grip.

“What’s wrong?” he asked. He twisted onto his front so he could push himself onto his hands and knees.

“Wait!” Phantom’s tail tightened on his wrist and pulled on it just as Danny started to brace his weight on his hands. Danny flopped onto his front with a grunt. “I didn’t mean to wake you. Just go back to sleep. You have school tomorrow.”

Nice as that sentiment was, Phantom still clung to Danny’s wrist. Danny buried his face in his pillow a moment—he really was _so_ tired—before he craned his head back so he could meet his boyfriend’s eyes again. His neck twinged in discomfort. “Well, you did wake me, so tell me what happened.”

Phantom pinched his lips together. They stared at each other, a silent battle of wills, before Phantom sighed and looked away. “It…started snowing.”

Danny blinked. “Okay?”

“I wanted to be warm.”

“Oh.” His neck hurt too much to maintain his position, so Danny turned his head and rested his cheek on his pillow. Phantom wanted to feel warm…? He was a ghost with a cold core, he hated being warm. Said it was like being boiled. Danny stared at his wrist and wiggled his fingers, causing the tip of Phantom’s tail to wiggle between his wrist’s tendons. That was when his half-asleep mind caught on that the tail tip was tucked right against his pulse. He jerked his head off the pillow. “Oh!”

Phantom let out a pained laugh. “Took you a moment.”

“Soul-ache?” he asked to make sure he’d guessed right, looking up at Phantom again despite the pain in his neck. That was what they called the emptiness they felt sometimes. Those moments when they sensed the missing half of their soul more keenly than others.

Phantom’s green eyes stared back at him, their glow unable to hide the longing in his gaze. “Yes.”

Danny winced in sympathy.

For Danny, the response was mostly physical. His chest would tighten, his breath coming a little too fast, his heart palpitating unpleasantly. He would be gripped by the need to find his other half, and each moment he existed without Phantom was torture. He didn’t know how it manifested in Phantom exactly; the ghost avoided talking about it. He only knew what Phantom craved most in those moments, what he craved right now but had denied himself because Danny had been sleeping.

Danny rested his head on the pillow and lifted the blankets invitingly.

Phantom hesitated—his body was often too cold for Danny’s heated cocoon, and Danny’s concentrated body heat was often too hot for Phantom—but after a moment, the tail unwound itself from Danny’s wrist, and the magazine was dropped onto his nightstand like an unwanted newspaper. Phantom sunk onto the bed, causing the springs to squeak slightly in protest and the mattress to dip towards him. He grabbed the blankets from Danny and slipped underneath them, tail first. It brushed Danny’s ankle, and the human shivered involuntarily, already feeling chilled.

A second later, Phantom lowered himself onto Danny’s back, tucking his face into the hollow between Danny’s neck and shoulder. He weighed less than Danny, but Danny still grunted as Phantom’s weight pressed him into the mattress. One arm squeezed between Danny’s waist and the mattress while the other tucked beneath his torso, slipping beneath his shirt and sliding up his chest until Phantom’s hand pressed directly over Danny’s heart.

“Better?” Danny asked, trying to still his shivers.

Phantom mumbled incoherently into his neck, his arms tightening around him. The tail Danny had been admiring earlier pushed beneath his hips, lifting them a little higher in this position than Danny preferred. The tail wrapped around him, brushing past his butt, and curled around the whole of his right leg, starting at his thigh and ending with the tip tucked against his toes.

Danny waited a moment in case Phantom thought of some other way to hold him, but the ghost seemed content to breathe deeply against Danny’s neck and simply feel Danny existing, living, breathing against him. Danny sighed and pushed one arm beneath his pillow, the other hand reaching behind him to tangle his fingers in Phantom’s hair. 

The ghost mumbled an appreciative “thank you,” his lips brushing tantalizingly against Danny’s throat. He probably hadn’t meant anything by it, but Danny shivered again, and not from the cold. He blinked his eyes open

When the pain in his soul became too much for Danny, he usually pushed Phantom into the nearest private space at hand, and then they would move together as one in ways they couldn’t when they were whole. It didn’t so much cure the ache as soothe it. Like massaging sore muscles or scratching an itch. He always felt more complete afterwards, and that wasn’t even counting the _physical_ side-effects. 

“ _Do_ you need…?” he asked, his voice a little less drowsy.

Phantom must have been thinking about something similar because he guessed what Danny was asking and mumbled, “This is enough.”

“Ah.” Danny closed his eyes, breathed deeply a couple times, and then opened them again. “Are you sure?”

Phantom snorted, and his chest rumbled against Danny’s back as he chuckled. “ _You_ want sex.”

“Well…” Danny thought about it a moment, not so much weighing the pros and cons as coming to the conclusion that sleep was overrated, “yes.”

Phantom lifted his head from Danny’s neck, and a beat passed as Phantom simply breathed into Danny’s hair. Then, “I have a headache, darling.”

A tired laugh burst out of Danny’s chest. “Ouch!”

Phantom laughed with him for a moment before he kissed Danny’s temple. “This is all I need, Fenton, truly. Try to sleep.”

“Yeah,” Danny muttered sarcastically, peering at Phantom from the corner of his eyes, “try to sleep with my boyfriend wrapped around every inch of me. Easy.”

Phantom snorted. “I’m not wrapped around _every_ inch.”

“Don’t make innuendos when I’m tired and horny.”

Phantom laughed into his shoulder. It was as pleasant to feel Phantom’s chest rumble with laughter as it had been the previous times, and Danny buried his smile in his pillow.

“Go to sleep, Fenton,” he said. He tucked his face against Danny’s neck again, his nose pressing against the vein in Danny’s throat. “You have to go to school in a few hours.”

Danny winced. “Buzz kill.”

He rested his cheek on the pillow again and buried his nose in Phantom’s own snowy white hair. It smelled faintly of Danny’s shampoo, so Phantom had managed to steal a shower recently. That he smelled like Danny made something deep inside him warm pleasantly, and he hummed as he once more threaded his fingers through Phantom’s hair.

Still, Danny wasn’t quite ready to sleep, and he stared out the window, watching the barely-visible snowflakes dance towards the ground. He shifted, bending his right knee, and Phantom shifted with him, his tail tightening and loosening against his leg. Phantom’s core thrummed a constant vibration against his back, and though the ghost didn’t need to breathe, he breathed in and out deeply. Possibly to smell Danny, but maybe to convince him to match their breathing and lull Danny into sleeping that much faster.

Between the snowflakes, the weight, and Phantom’s breathing…it was working.

“I miss you,” Phantom whispered, and Danny blinked his eyes open again. “It hurts that this is as close as we can ever be again, but…” His arms tightened around Danny. “I wouldn’t trade this.”

Danny smiled. “Same.” Phantom’s tail shifted again, inadvertently pushing Danny’s hips higher and squeezing his thigh. He groaned and whined, “Are you _sure_ you don’t—“

“ _Yes_ , Fenton.”

“I swear to god, me and that blasted tail of yours are going to have a date tomorrow,” Danny muttered darkly.

Phantom’s laughter reverberated through their chests.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Credit where credit is due, inspiration for their soul hurting came from Lunagalemaster's Take Pride in Your Humanity Phriendship fic (I would link it but Ao3 is still a mystery to me)
> 
> I had thought about their souls missing each other before, but not to that extent, and reading that fic really cemented my love for it. A soul torn apart would hurt and crave its missing half, that's the basis for the soulmate myth. It doesn't have to be romantic, but if the two halves are predisposed toward romance it could develop that way. I like to imagine Danny experiences it as a physical ache because he's human, but as a ghost Phantom would experience differently, perhaps like an emotional sadness that sweeps over him. I would make it a feature in The Suave and the Awkward, but it's probably too late for that.
> 
> At any rate, I love cuddles and Phantom's tail, and I loved writing this little drabble, so of course I'd post it first ;)


	2. Void Fenton

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone on the pitch pearl discord server asked if there were any PP Void Danny aus and...I decided to deliver?
> 
> Void Danny is basically if Nocturne chose a fully human Danny the way Undergrowth chose Sam in a reverse trio au. Only I didn't need Sam to get ghost powers in a Pitch Pearl version because Fenton would already be fully human. It'll make sense in-story

Phantom knew something was wrong when he woke up from a bad dream in the Ghost Zone. He was no longer half human, he no longer slept. He no longer dreamed. He shouldn't have woke up anywhere, least of all in the Ghost Zone. That had been clue number one.

Number two came after he returned to the human world and saw how quiet his city was. There was always at least one car on any one street, and usually multiple on the main roads, but there had been no late night workers driving home, no emergency jaunts to the grocery store, nothing. What cars were on the road were parked in areas they should not have been, their drivers fast asleep against the window.

Those strange helmets were on each one...

By the time Phantom flew into Fenton's room, shouting about there being a problem, he had resigned himself to seeing Fenton asleep with his own accessory, but the reality was much worse. Phantom hovered a second longer before he dropped to the floorboards beside the bed.

The empty bed.

"Fenton?" he called weakly. He looked under the bed, beneath the blankets. He checked the closet, the bathroom, and the lab before he returned to his old bedroom and dropped onto the mattress. He braced his elbows on his knees and lowered his head so he could run his fingers through his hair.

Clue number three, Fenton was missing. Possibly held captive by a ghost. Phantom didn't know why ghosts insisted on targeting his friends, but taking his human half was a step too far, even for them. Fenton didn't have an ancient Egyptian ancestor like Tucker, he didn't adore plants like Sam, he was just Phantom's living half, his only connection to his old life. 

Phantom clenched his jaw, his eyes blazing. If they hurt one hair on Fenton's head, he would hunt them down and show them exactly why they should fear Phantom losing his humanity entirely.

"There you are."

Phantom jerked his head off his hands. "Fenton," he gasped, relieved. He couldn't see him, humans being a non-glowing species, but that was his voice. Their voice. Phantom stood up from the bed and moved toward the shadowy shape that vaguely resembled his human half. "I thought you had been--" His ghost sense interrupted him, and Phantom froze as a chill swept through him.

Fenton didn't say anything, but in the darkness, his head seemed to tilt. 

Phantom summoned a large concentration of ectoplasm to his hand and shone the light on Fenton, ready to apologize for the bright light that would undoubtedly sting his eyes, but the words halted on his tongue. Fenton didn't have eyes anymore, not human ones. A blackness so deep it absorbed the light that struck it like a black hole had replaced them.

Phantom made a weak, wounded noise, but there was more. He allowed his gaze to trace over the rest of Fenton's body, noting that his clothes had been removed. The same blackness that covered his eyes also covered Fenton's hair, his arms, his legs. It danced and twisted over his body like a living thing, small tendrils curling over any exposed skin on Fenton's face, chest, and stomach. 

One tendril that danced and wiggled over an area of Fenton's lower stomach that was usually hidden beneath his pants was hard to look away from. It wasn't until Fenton took a step toward him that Phantom was able to wrench his eyes away. He flushed and took a step back. 

"Who did this?" Phantom demanded, his voice strained. He realized his hands were shaking and quickly fisted them at his sides. "And why you?"

Ignoring Phantom's attempt to maintain distance, Fenton continued to move slowly toward him. Phantom retreated for a time, wary of allowing him too close, before he stood his ground, sensing the bed behind him. 

"Nocturne," Fenton answered, his voice oddly dreamy. "He has chosen me as his son..."

"That's a pretty title for 'captive'," Phantom snarled. There had to be a way to fix this. Perhaps another pass through the Ghost Catcher, though Phantom wasn't sure if Fenton's body could handle the stress of a second separation.

Fenton reached for him, but Phantom was no fool who could be lulled into dropping his guard just because an invader chose to set Fenton against him. He turned intangible and floated  backward until the bed separated the two of them. Fenton's hand dropped back down to his side.

"Are you still in there or do I need to go kick somebody's ass?" Phantom asked. "If you're still fighting this, Fenton, I need a sign." His voice lost its hard edge and turned desperate at the end, but Phantom couldn't help it. This was a nightmare-turned-reality, and Phantom didn't even have nightmares anymore.

Fenton laughed lightly. "Of course I'm me, Phantom. Father has just given me my dream."

"To be possessed?" Phantom demanded. The word 'again' haunted the edges of his thoughts, longing to be spoken, but Phantom ruthlessly shoved it aside.   
As if in answer, pinpricks of light began to twinkle within the blackness covering Fenton. They grew larger and more numerous, forming patterns and familiar formations that discolored Fenton's blackened skin in lighter hues of blue and purple. Phantom could only watch, entranced, as Fenton's body began to resemble the night sky. While the blackened tendrils creeped over Fenton's bare skin, the sky within rotated slowly. 

When he finally tore his gaze away and raised it to Fenton's face, he saw Fenton watching him in turn with a sly, pleased smile.

Phantom cleared his throat. "Okay...that's...a stronger argument, but it's still a form a possession."

"So were you."

Phantom flinched and took a half step back. The ectoplasm in his hands winked out, but it wasn't needed anymore. A thousand miniature stars danced across Fenton's skin, highlighting his form well enough. "That's not fair...I didn't mean--we're still not sure if that's what really--it's not the same."

"It's not," Fenton agreed.

They stared at each other a moment longer before, much as Phantom's ectoplasm had, the stars winked out, and Fenton disappeared amidst the shadows. Phantom made a sound of protest and leaned forward over the bed, but he couldn't even see Fenton's shadowy shape. 

Phantom was about to call out Fenton's name when, behind him, he heard his other half whisper, "Behind you."

Phantom spun around. A hand, colder than it should have been, pressed against his chest, and then the stars reignited on Fenton's skin in a flash of light, but Phantom was no longer in a position to appreciate it. He felt his energy draining away, a lassitude overcoming his thoughts. He raised a hand that suddenly felt so much heavier than it should and grabbed Fenton's wrist. It had been a long time since he had felt tired, but he remembered how awful it had felt, and he knew Fenton was the one causing it now. 

He was trying to put him to sleep again.

 _Yeah, well, too bad_ , Phantom thought, clenching his jaw. It seemed Fenton needed physical contact for his power to work, and while Phantom was unwilling to hurt him, there were other ways to escape a human's touch. Intangible ways.

He summoned the power to turn himself incorporeal with a mere twist of his thoughts, but Fenton knew how his powers worked just as well as Phantom did. Phantom's concentration could be broken, his powers prematurely canceled by shock, pain, or distraction. Fenton used all three in the worst way possible.

His other hand cupped the back of Phantom's head and then he leaned forward and kissed him. 

Phantom's powers slipped through his grasp, and he sucked in a sharp breath through his nose. It brought with it the scent of Fenton's body wash. He trembled, fighting the desire to kiss him back. He hadn't been _unaware_ of the tension building between him and Fenton over these last few months, but there had been an unspoken agreement not to act on it, and he was afraid to do so now. Or later. Or ever. It was something they shouldn't do no matter how much they might long for one another.

Fenton slid his heated lips over Phantom's as he tilted his head, creating a delicious friction that made Phantom's nerves sing with pleasure. All the while, Phantom's strength ebbed and his thoughts grew hazy. There was reasons he should fight this. Fenton's hand slid up his chest, escaping Phantom's weakening hold. He reached for Fenton's shirt but remembered he wasn't wearing anything when his fingers touched skin.

If he succumbed, who would save Fenton? He struggled to open eyes he hadn't meant to close, but Fenton's tongue slid past Phantom's lips, and he lost the battle, falling into Fenton's embrace as the human's arm encircled his shoulders. There was something coiling around his ankles, creeping up his legs. It tickled, but the hand Fenton had tangled through his hair, the tongue twining with his, the heated breathes being exhaled into his mouth, kept his senses captive. 

His own sluggish attempts to kiss Fenton back failed to match the desire he felt, but Fenton had no such limitations, and he proceeded to take everything he and Phantom had denied themselves with ruthless abandon. Several months of tension compiled in a single deep kiss that left Phantom's head spinning.   
Until Phantom's strength failed. His knees crumpled beneath him, forcing an end to their kiss. He fell, but whatever had been creeping up his leg caught him.

A hazy glance through partially opened eyes told Phantom it was the star-sparkled black void that had swallowed Fenton. It had flowed from his other half and begun to swallow Phantom as well. That should have been alarming, but Phantom could only muster a single tug of his arm before fatigue weighed him down.

Fenton knelt beside him and swept Phantom's hair from his forehead. "If they will only let us be together in dreams," he said, "then that is where we'll go."

"Fenton," Phantom breathed, struggling to order his thoughts. He didn't want dreams, he wanted the _real_ , human Fenton. "Don't..."

Fenton kissed his forehead, and Phantom shivered as his warm lips lingered on his skin. When he pulled away, Phantom felt a pain deep in his chest. 

A helmet pressed down on his head, its hard, metal edges pushing against his forehead where Fenton's soft lips had been seconds ago, and then the world went dark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second part: Fenton swoops into Phantom's dreams in all his naked, void glory and tells Phantom to stop fighting happy dreams where they're together or he's going to give him nightmares


	3. Pirates

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pirate Captain Phantom kidnaps Daniel Masters and holds him captive as part of his crew, waiting for a ransom that may never come

Phantom leaned on the railing in front of his cabin and stared down at the deck where their prisoner for the past couple weeks was scrubbing up the rum Phantom had spilled. A strong wind billowed the sails above them, creating a thunderous racket that unfortunately drowned out whatever swears the boy was cursing.

Sam finished reading the letter a second time and spat the same word she had used after she had read the words aloud for Phantom's benefit the first time, " _Fuck_!"

Phantom smiled. Keeping his elbow balanced on the rail, he raised his left arm and rested his cheek on his palm. Daniel, their prisoner, turned slowly in a circle as he scrubbed viciously at the boards. Phantom wondered when he would notice part of the stain he was trying to clear was old blood and not recently spilled rum. Hopefully not before his ass pointed in Phantom's direction again. Lovely as his face looked, all flushed and sweaty with black hair clinging to his cheeks and forehead, pink, weather-bitten lips pulled into a snarl, there was something truly hypnotic about watching the rough sway of his ass as he scrubbed.

It was why Phantom had allowed the precious liquid to spill from his tankard in the first place.

"You can't keep him," Sam said over the snapping sail cloth. When Phantom didn't immediately respond, she hissed, " _Captain_."

* * *

"You read the letter," Phantom replied absently. "His father doesn't want him anymore."

"Then we kill him and dump his damn carcass on the governor's docks. You _know_ how this works."

Daniel stopped scrubbing long enough to wipe his arm across his forehead, trying to brush his fringe away. Phantom was glad he had only had time to cut off the boy's ponytail back when they first seized him and that one of his crew had had the foresight to preserve as much of his hair as she could when she offered to fix it. Ember had probably noticed Phantom’s interest in their prisoner early on and chose to...exasperate the situation. Likely for her own amusement.

Daniel had finally stopped trying to keep the strings of Phantom's old shirt tied together, and the full expanse of his collarbone lay exposed. The loose shirt billowed freely in the wind where sweat didn't keep it pinned to Daniel's body. 

"Captain!" 

"Sam," Phantom said, "I think I'm in love..."

"The fuck you are!" His first mate slammed her fist onto the rail beside him. "You know what your are? You're five months from your last fuck and horny as a bitch in heat. Just drag him to your cabin and tumble him as often as you need to get him out of your system so we can get back to business."

"Such delicate language, Sammy," Phantom drawled, still not looking away from Daniel. He had gone back to scrubbing. "Your parents would be so proud."

"Shut the fuck up."

"I'm keeping him."

Sam spat a slew of curses. All the foul words she had been forced to swallow while her parents tried to make her into a proper lady spilling from her lips. Phantom didn't mind. He had heard worse, not that he would ever tell her. She would take it as a challenge.

"Look," he said once she paused to catch her breath, "the governor didn't just refuse to pay the ransom, he was as insulting as possible, and he never referred to his son by name. Not only does he not want his son back, I think he wants him dead. I'm not playing into that man's hands."

Sam thought that over for a second. Phantom heard parchment rustle behind him and realized she was reading it over for the third time, but in a new light. Phantom crossed the fingers of his hand he had allowed to dangle over the rail. He didn't need Sam's agreement, but life would be a great deal easier if she conceded the point.

Some spirit of the ether must have whispered in Daniel's ear that his fate was being discussed, because he looked up at that moment and caught Phantom staring at him. Blue eyes narrowed as they so often did on such occasions, and Phantom lifted an eyebrow as his smile grew. Daniel hadn't stopped scrubbing yet, much to Phantom's delight. Daniel didn't have much muscle to speak of, he had to throw his whole weight into scrubbing as he got tired, and his staring into Phantom's eyes as his body rocked back and forth was very...suggestive.

Tumbling him in the captain's quarter's was sounding more tempting by the moment. 

He would never go for it, but Phantom's imagination and hand could probably make up for his absence. At least a little. Maybe.

The wind stalled, briefly allowing the sails to slacken, and Daniel took the opportunity to yell, "What are you staring at?" He put as much annoyance into the shout as he could manage, which was actually a lot. Phantom was impressed. Daniel also stopped scrubbing, which Phantom was less happy about.

"Just enjoying the view, love," Phantom called back. "Don't stop on my account." He motioned with his hand for Daniel to return to his task.

Chuckles cascaded across the deck, and Daniel looked around at the pirates, his jaw clenched as he tried to figure out the joke. He never seemed to realize Phantom was flirting with him, which was an endless source of entertainment for the crew. Perhaps he had yet to encounter men who preferred the company of other men, forced to hide beneath society's notice as they were, but it was also possible he existed in willful ignorance, smothering any thoughts about intimacy between his own sex. 

Phantom hoped it was a little of both. If Daniel liked boys too but didn't realize he wasn't a freak, if the wool society had pulled over his eyes to make him feel normal was the reason why Phantom's flirtations kept flying over his head, then they could have a lot of fun once that barrier was removed. If he didn't like other men and that was why it never occurred to him Phantom might be flirting, well...

Phantom's hand and his imagination remained.

Perhaps even a dock boy at the next port, though he wasn't sure he would be able to handle Daniel's innocent confusion the following day. Or in general. He would end up imagining Daniel in the poor sod's place, he just knew it, and that would make things awkward all around.

He really just needed Daniel in his bed and that was all there was to it.

God, he hoped he liked men. Or was at least open to experimenting.

"If you're right about his father wanting him dead," Sam said, speaking slowly, "then he might send someone after us to make sure we do so. We still shouldn't keep him."

"I seem to recall your parents sending bounty hunters after us as well," Phantom replied. 

A few suggestive cat calls and wolf whistles were sent Daniel's way, but as usual he didn't take them seriously. He huffed and scowled and made a rude gesture at those closest to him. They laughed at him, of course, and Phantom felt his own grin growing.

"Maybe they did, but _I_ wanted to be a pirate." Sam pointed at Daniel as if Phantom's eyes weren't already fixated on their captive. " _He_ wants to get back to his mommy. I say we drop him off at the next port and damn well let him find his own way back. Maybe give him some coin if your bleeding heart starts to pang."

"It's not just going to pang, Sam." Phantom pressed his right hand over his heart. "It will break. I'll pine for him. I'll be a ghost of myself. A true phantom."

"You'll definitely be a ghost in the next few seconds if you don't start taking this seriously," she snapped.

"I am being serious. You're the one who's not listening."

The wind billowed the sails again with a loud boom. The crew cheered the loud noise, but Daniel winced. Phantom hummed and waited to see if he would resume scrubbing the deck. He didn't. He bent his arm at the elbow then straightened it again, rubbing his bicep through his shirt as he repeated the motion a few more times. It seemed his arms were too sore to continue.

"You will turn us into some noble brat's bodyguards?" Sam demanded. "He's going to bring trouble down on all our heads, and you're just going to let it happen because you want to bed him? Well fucking do it and get it over with!"

Phantom shook his head and straightened from the railing. "There's more going on here, Sam. I won't make any hasty decisions until I get to the bottom of this."

Sam scoffed. "You mean until you get to the bottom of Vladimir Masters' agenda? Or his son’s _literal_ bottom? Because you've definitely been salivating over one of those, and it wasn't the love letter we just got."

Phantom laughed, a light, quick sound. "Both!" He plucked the rolled parchment from Sam's hand and tapped it against his forehead in mock salute, smiling at her irritated expression. "So long as the boy stays safe in my care, I can get my answers and stare longingly at his ass all I want."

"You're making a mistake," Sam said, but Phantom could see she was already conceding the point. She had begun to befriend Daniel too, Phantom had seen her laughing with him just that morning. She was simply more pragmatic. And perhaps a little short-sighted.

"I'll add it to the list then." He turned away and began walking toward his cabin. When he reached the threshold, he boomed in a voice loud enough to be heard across the ship, "Bring me the prisoner!"

He heard Daniel shout and his crew roaring into action with a gleeful cheer. For some reason Daniel insisted on doing things the hard way. If Phantom wanted him in his cabin, Daniel would refuse and would have to be dragged into the room. Sure enough, several minutes of listening to his crew laugh and chant on the deck, a man holding Daniel's legs beneath his armpits walked backward into the cabin while another followed, holding Daniel's upper half by his forearms. The governor's son wiggled in their grip, his body twisting and bucking between them whilst he screeched insults about their mothers, their odor, their moral depravity, their ugly faces. 

Phantom sat atop his desk, crisscrossed his legs, and leaned his cheek on his hand as he observed Daniel's struggles, a slow, appreciative smile curling his lips. He could watch the way Daniel contorted his body all day. His shirt was too loose to show off his torso, tucked into his pants so it couldn't ride up, but the pants Phantom had loaned him hugged his ass and thighs perfectly. The only fault in the image was that Phantom wasn't the one holding his legs himself.

The two crew members, Johnny and Shade, dropped Daniel directly in front of Phantom's desk and charged from the room before Daniel could finish rolling onto his front, howling suggestive well-wishes at their captain. They slammed the door behind them, but not before the crew outside cheered their return.

Daniel spat one last, " _Pirates_ ," like the word was a sour taste in his mouth before he finished pushing himself onto his feet. He turned a viscous, blue-eyed glare on Phantom, the captain of the hated pirates, but if he hoped to intimidate his captor, he was going about it the wrong way.

Phantom sighed dreamily, exaggerating only half the emotion seizing his heart. "You're too beautiful to be scary, love," he said. "It's like being glared at by a kitten—fierce but so _cute_."

"What do you want this time, Phantom?" Daniel demanded, ignoring the comment. "I was cleaning up your mess, I wasn't doing anything wrong."

"Captain," Phantom corrected. "Or Captain Phantom. Sir, if you prefer."

"I'm not part of your crew."

"No," Phantom agreed with a grin, "I just want to hear you say it. Preferably in my ear. Softly. Like a prayer."

Daniel's scowl grew more pronounced. His black hair still clung to the sweat on his face. "Can you stop being weird for five seconds and tell me why I'm here?"

"Ah, actually..." Phantom sat up straight, lifting his head off his hand. "I was hoping you could tell me." Daniel frowned, confused, so Phantom explained, "When we accepted this plan—you heard it was a plan we accepted from a third party, yes? Good—our original target was your sister. Our sources said she was the favored daughter, the one likely to fetch a higher ransom, but when we arrived at your estate, your sister and mother were gone, your father fleeing on a horse. The only one left in the villa besides the servants...was you. Locked in your room."

Phantom braced his elbows on his knees and leaned forward, staring into Daniel's eyes even as those blue irises looked away. The desk was a high one, and they were at eye-level despite Phantom sitting while Daniel stood. "We couldn't leave empty-handed, of course, so we adapted to the situation and took you with us in your sister's stead. We left the ransom demand for your father, along with details on how to make contact with us, and we finally received a response at our last landfall." 

Phantom tossed the roll of parchment into the air and caught it as it fell. Daniel's eyes followed its progress like a hungry animal. "Would you like to read what he said?"

Daniel thinned his lips, his jaw clenched. He glared at the parchment a while longer before he said, voice tight with restraint, "He refused to pay the ransom."

"He did," Phantom said, nodding his head. "He also called me a sea devil. The spawn of a four legged beast and a whore. A bloodthirsty criminal with less honor than a rat. Should I go on or can you guess the rest? It's a decent sized parchment."

Daniel swallowed. His cheeks appeared to have reddened further, though it was difficult to tell beneath his sunburn. "I understand."

"He doesn't sound like a worried father."

"...No."

"He's trying to piss us off. It worked. Sam is furious. You've become a waste of time and resources. If the crew found out..."

Daniel nodded. He licked his lips, hesitated, then asked in the smallest voice Phantom had ever heard from him, "Are you going to kill me?"

Phantom frowned. How long had it been since he had seen fear touch those blue eyes? Did Daniel even realize how comfortable he was becoming among them? "That really would be a waste. After all," Phantom twisted a dramatic lilt into his voice and pressed his hand over his heart, "who else could put on such a performance while scrubbing my deck? My heart would wither without you."

Daniel snorted, but the fear receded and his shoulders relaxed. It wasn't gone—it probably never would be—but it was enough for now. "What are you going to do with me now that I'm so useless to you?"

"Other than as a swabbie?" Phantom tapped the rolled edge of the parchment against his hairless chin. He never could seem to grow a beard or even a mustache, though given his natural hair color, that was probably to his benefit. "That depends on what you tell me now. Why were you locked in your room? Why did your father leave you? Why does he appear to want you _dead_?"

Phantom snapped the last word, and Daniel flinched. They stared at each other as the ship pitched beneath them. The sea had been getting progressively rougher as the sun rose, and soon Daniel would be struggling to maintain his balance again, his clumsy, landlubber legs another source of endless entertainment for Phantom and his crew. He was getting better, however. He hadn't been seasick since that first day. Phantom could almost believe they could make a pirate of him yet.

"He's not my father," Daniel mumbled.

Phantom raised an eyebrow. He had heard the words, but the snapping sail outside made him doubt he had heard correctly. "Say again?"

"Vlad isn't my father!" Daniel shouted, overcompensating. "My real father died five years ago! Killed on some damn pirate raid that never should have happened! He was just a blacksmith! They shouldn't have—there was no reason for them to—”

Daniel stopped trying to force the words out. He sucked in shaky breaths as Phantom watched him. Phantom’s expression remained the same though inside Phantom's thoughts churned, fierce as an ocean storm. 

There was a great deal Phantom needed more information on, but for now, he asked, "You're a commoner? The son of a blacksmith? Your sister too?"

Daniel nodded jerkily.

"And your mother? Why did the governor marry a common woman with two children?"

Daniel ground his teeth together, his blue eyes glaring at the wall to his left. "She's...Mom was a French nobleman's daughter, but she eloped with dad and lost her inheritance. She and Vlad used to be friends when they were kids. He says he wants to repair the relationship between her and her father, and Mom...she had no way to support us without Dad. She asked Vlad to hire her as a maid, but he offered to marry her instead. She said yes for our sake...at first..."

Phantom nodded slowly. "She left a comfortable life to be with the man she loved, only for him to be killed. Now her only son from her first marriage is in the hands of notorious pirates, and her current husband has refused to pay for his return." He thought for a moment, frowning at the floor. "Do you think she knows about his refusal?"

"If she did," Daniel said, voice strong with fierce confidence, "she would have _gutted_ him."

Phantom raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"She'll gut you too if she ever finds us," Daniel spat.

Phantom chuckled. "Many people would do the same. Finding us is the trick." He set the parchment down on the desk beside him and cocked his head to the side, considering his prisoner. "Perhaps we should send the ransom to your mother instead then. She sounds more logical, less...slimy."

"Vlad won't allow that." Phantom hummed a silent question, and Daniel added, "He wants me dead, remember? Who do you think locked me in my room? He knows I'll tell Mom he's a two-faced snake if I ever see her again."

"Ah." Phantom tapped his index finger against his knee a few times before he shrugged. "We'll just have to keep you alive to spite him, then. I would hate for him to get what he wants in the end, especially after he insulted my father. He might be right about my mother and me, though." He grinned wickedly, a look that often made his enemies hesitate. Danny didn't flinch, but he eyed him warily. "You've heard the rumors, I take it?"

On Phantom's ship with a crew devoted to Phantom alone, how could he not? The men and woman bragged about their captain any chance they got. It was all nonsense, but it kept their enemies on their toes and his crew loyal.

Daniel nodded. "Is any of it true?"

Phantom shrugged. "Your guess is as good as mine. I never met the woman, not even as a suckling babe according to my father. Perhaps she was a mermaid. Perhaps she was Calypso. But more likely, she was just a poor woman who couldn't afford a bastard child so she left me with my father. Not the best choice, but at least he never tried to abandon me. So much for all pirates being scum, eh?"

Daniel shifted his weight and his fingers plucked at the sleeve of his other arm. He didn't appear to know what to say.

"It seems your stay with us will be longer than expected," Phantom said, letting the matter drop. He smiled, pleased with the idea. "We should get better acquainted."

The wariness hadn't gone from Daniel's eyes, but it was fully directed at Phantom now. "We're not friends," he said. 

Phantom ignored that. "Do you have a nickname? We can supply you one, if you wish, though you may not like the result. 'Daniel' is too sophisticated for us low-lifes, and some of us would rather cut off our own tongue than call someone 'Masters.'"

Daniel chewed on his bottom lip a moment then said, "Danny."

"Ah." That had been Phantom's original nickname too. It would be...odd to call someone else by that name. "You may wish to choose something else. Something less suited for a child or the crew and I might start referring to you as one again."

Daniel scowled. "They haven't stopped."

"No, but I have. That counts for something, doesn't it?"

Daniel rolled his eyes. After a few more seconds of thought, he suggested, "Fenton, then. It was...my dad's family name."

Phantom studied his expression and then tested the name on his tongue. "Fenton...yes, that might work. You might find yourself bound by another name later on, something to do with those lovely eyes of yours, perhaps, but it should do for now. Better than being referred to as 'prisoner' and 'boy', right?"

Fenton nodded, a sharp jerk of his head.

Phantom nodded as well, a pleased smile on his lips. It wasn't as if he could moan 'boy' and 'prisoner' into his pillow at night, after all. ‘Fenton’ would have a much nicer ring to it, a stronger pull.

Damn, he was pathetic.

"How old are you, Fenton?"

Fenton narrowed his eyes. "Nineteen. Why?"

 _Perfect_. 

"Just making sure you aren't actually a child," Phantom explained with a teasing grin. "I'm nineteen as well."

Fenton nodded, but he didn't seem to understand the significance. The two of them were nearly the same height as well. Phantom was sure his experience and muscles would give him the edge to begin with, but Fenton was crafty. Finding out which one of them could overcome and dominate the other would be... _fun_.

"Do you know the French language?" Phantom asked. "You mentioned your mother was a French woman."

Fenton shrugged and dragged his palms down his pants. Were they sweaty? "I'm not fluent, but I can speak it. You want me to translate something for you?"

Phantom couldn't hide his grin even if he had tried. "Give me an example."

"Um..." Fenton licked his lips, thought a moment as he frowned at Phantom, then said in a questioning tone, " _A quoi tu joues_?"

It didn't make a lick to sense to Phantom, but the foreign words made heat pool in his stomach. He leaned forward again, keeping Fenton's eyes on his face. "And what does that mean?"

"'What are you playing at?'" Fenton replied in the same tone he had used when he spoke the sentence in French. 

Phantom chuckled softly to himself. He was officially fucked. The kid was bilingual. He wondered what the French words for ' _faster_ ' and ' _harder_ ' were, and if Fenton was familiar enough with the language to shout them at the height of passion. If hearing a Fenton speak a foreign tongue was hot now, it would be devastating then. Phantom hoped he would find out some day. Sooner rather than later. Before he had to give him back to his parents. 

"I'm only trying to learn more about you, love," he said. "You...interest me. You may ask me questions too if you like."

Fenton thought a moment, shifting his weight from foot to foot. "How did you become a pirate?"

An easy question for him to start with. "My father raised me aboard his ship," Phantom explained. "His crew considered me their lucky charm and would bring me sweets from shore. I never set foot on dry land myself until I was eleven. I remember I hated how...still it felt. Like a dead, lifeless thing. When my father vanished, the few members who had stayed with me on land for the mission swore their service to me in his stead. I was fifteen at the time."

"And you've been a captain ever since?" Fenton asked, surprised.

Phantom held up his hand and waggled it side to side. "There were moments others were more fit to lead than I, so they became the captain as decreed by the crew, but overall I have lead more than I have followed. Stay with us long enough, and you might see the captaincy fall on Sam's shoulders for a time. She leads us well, though she is not always the most clear-headed."

Fenton looked baffled, his blue eyes blinking at Phantom like he couldn't seem to make sense of him. 

"Not what you expected from a bloodthirsty band of sea thieves?" Phantom asked archly.

Fenton rubbed at his neck but flinched and pulled his hand away when he encountered his sunburned skin. "You're still a bloodthirsty band of sea thieves," he said, "you're just...less violent than I thought. Amongst each other, I mean."

"Oh, we're still plenty violent," Phantom said, but he left it at that. "Anything else?"

Fenton hesitated for half a second then blurted, "Are you educated? You speak better than I did before Vlad..." He trailed off, looking uncomfortable.

"Sam taught me how to speak like a noble," Phantom said, choosing to skip over Fenton's discomfort. "It has become habit now, but I can speak like the rest of the crew if you would rather?"

Fenton shook his head quickly. "I just didn't expect it."

"That's what I'm known for," Phantom said with a cheeky grin. "I embody the unexpected! I'm not educated, however. Sam taught me to speak and helped with my vocabulary, but I hate reading. The letters..." Phantom paused a moment, trying to describe it in his head before he gave voice to the problem. "I have trouble keeping them in order and remembering which shape makes what sound. Sam believes I tried learning too late." He shrugged, unconcerned. 

"Maybe," Fenton said, but he didn't seem to like the answer. In fact, he seemed more upset by Phantom's inability to read than Phantom himself.

Phantom uncrossed his legs and stood up from the desk. Fenton tensed, but he stood his ground. He had been doing that more often of late. Phantom appreciated it for the courage it showed but also because it worked in Phantom's favor. He took the single stride that put him within arms' reach of Fenton and stared into the other's eyes. They were a beautiful color. 

"Is that all you wish to know?" he asked, enjoying the proximity.

He could see there was something else rolling around in Fenton's head by the way his jaw clenched and relaxed, his brow wrinkled in growing confusion. Phantom longed to smooth his thumb over his forehead, brush back his black hair, but once he allowed himself to touch, would he be able to stop? Brushing Fenton's hair back now might lead to touching his shoulder at dinner later which could eventually lead to grabbing his hand to help him up in the morning. That was especially dangerous because Phantom wanted to hold his hand. He wanted to kiss it too. 

He rarely bothered with such sentimentality, he wasn't sure what part it played. He had better step carefully or he would mess things up.

"You keep staring at me," Fenton finally said. "Why?"

Phantom tilted his head to the side. "Why wouldn't I? You're fascinating to watch, love."

Fenton frowned, pulling his lips into a thin line. He didn't understand, and Phantom wasn't willing to simply blurt out his attraction, afraid he might scare him away completely. Sodomy was a crime punishable by death under the law, and while that meant nothing to a pirate, it may mean the difference between life and death to someone hoping to return to normal society some day.

Not that anyone would necessarily have to _know_ what happened on Phantom's ship. So long as Fenton didn't limp with a noticeable space between his legs, hickeys covering his neck once he returned to his mother's side, no one would be the wiser. It was that fear the law had instilled that was the real enemy.  
Well...that and Fenton's apparently endless innocence on the subject.  

"My turn for a question, I think." Phantom fought the urge to touch Fenton's face by running his hand through his own white fringe, pulling apart what tangles his fingers came across with long practice. He bit down on his lip a moment and considered the brilliant blue of Fenton's eyes. So like the ocean... "Do you know how to swim?"

Slowly, Fenton shook his head.

An equally slow smile curled Phantom's lips. "I could teach you, if you like?"

Fenton's eyes drifted to the wall on their left where, behind the wood, an endless expanse of blue stretched. "I'll pass..."

Phantom laughed, though he felt something inside him ache at Fenton's refusal. "We would wait until we reached another island, of course. The water is shallower there."

Fenton's eyes snapped back to Phantom's face. "You'll let me on shore?"

"An uninhabited stretch of land," Phantom amended.

"Ah," Fenton breathed, "the catch." He sighed. "If it'll get me off this floating death trap, then I'll do it." He paused a beat. "On the condition that you--" He stopped himself and shook his head. He made a frustrated sound in the back of his throat. "Nevermind."

Phantom considered him for several long seconds before he nodded. He wondered what condition Fenton had been about to place on him, but just the idea of getting into the water with him and sharing how wonderful it felt to swim made Phantom beam with excitement. Whatever condition Daniel placed on him would have been worth it. 

"Then that's what we'll do the next time we make landfall," he said, rocking back on his heels. "For now, you should probably return to your duties before the crew start complaining about me going easy on you again." 

Fenton groaned, but he had received a long enough break Phantom felt he could resume his work on deck without straining his arms. His sweat remained, however, sticky on his skin where his shirt clung to his chest and his hair draped over his forehead. The desire to touch him rose in Phantom again. He didn't sweat as much as other people, but he loved the smell of it, Fenton's especially, and the way sweat made skin slide across skin so effortlessly.

 _That_ lead to some interesting thoughts which only amplified Phantom's desire to reach out and touch, but fortunately Daniel was less burdened.

"Can I go now?" Fenton asked dryly. In a mocking tone, he added, " _Capitaine_?"

The mockery couldn't smother Phantom's delight. He grinned. "Yes, love. You're dismissed."

Fenton took a step back and gave Phantom a mock bow, unintentionally revealing the whole of his flat chest through the opening of his collar. Then he straightened, spun on his heel, and marched from the room. 

Once the door shut behind him, Phantom sighed and fell back on his desk. He picked up the worthless parchment Vladimir had sent them and used it to fan his face. "Cujo," he said to the monkey sleeping on his pillow, "don't tell Sam, but I think I'm in trouble."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If I had the time I would try to write the whole story we have planned in the Discord Server, but for now, here's my attempt at scratching the itch before my interest in the story can get out of hand


End file.
